By DAVID MYERSSouthwest Kansas RegisterEditor’s Note: This week the Register continues coverage leading to the November 17 “Stewardship Renewal Commitment Sunday” by highlighting one of the four Pillars of Stewardship: “Prayer”. The last issue of the Register highlighted “Formation.”

Each Thursday evening, several men gather in the soft light of Mary Queen of Peace Parish in Ulysses. In their hands they each hold a rosary. Together, they pray their admonitions to the Lord, a prayer for conversion – of families, of communities; they pray the repeated words of the rosary as God removes that outer layer of their daily lives until the world subsides and they can feel God’s presence with utter clarity. Father Peter Fernandez started the rosary group for men, “Soldados de Cristo (Solders of Christ)” at Mary Queen of Peace Parish in March following a parish mission in which was stressed the struggle of the family in today’s society -- a society entrenched with often unhealthy distractions.

“The reality is that the family is being challenged by the culture of death,” Father Fernandez said. “The fathers in the family must start giving more importance to the spiritual life in the family. If the fathers lead, it is easier for the family to walk on the same path. There is more authority, especially in the Hispanic community,” Father Fernandez said. “The rosary is a powerful prayer; that is why the Blessed Virgin Mary in her apparitions has told us to pray the rosary for the conversion of sinners and for the conversion of those who don’t believe in God,” he said. He recalled a time, during the cold war, when it was common for people to pray for the conversion of Russia. “We can see the effect of that powerful tool of prayer. How much more powerful is the prayer for the sustenance of faith within our families? Or for the conversion of families, especially those who are influenced by the culture of death and other influences that take the focus away from the good plan of God? “The Soldados de Cristo is meant to pray for families – including their own families: to be always be firm in their faith in God and to be firm enough to practice their faith in the midst of the culture of death and influences that pull the families or family members away from God.” October happens to be the Month of the Holy Rosary. “Pope John XXIII wrote in an apostolic message: ‘As you pray the Rosary, meditate on the mysteries; they are the central mysteries of our religion. Let Mary, the perfect model of Christian living, lead you toward an ever more solid and coherent faith. In every family that devoutly prays the rosary, let Mary teach, encourage and strengthen the Christian life of all its members. May she, the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of the Church, strengthen us all in an ever increasing fidelity to Christ and his Church’.” Those who devoutly pray the rosary recognize in it a “power that leads to conversion,” Father Fernandez said. “This is not just about one person; it can not only convert people, but also nations.” Of course, Father Fernandez’s hopes as the men gather each Thursday evening – sometimes bringing their sons with them – are less ambitious than the conversion of a nation, but they are at least as important. “They are praying for the conversion of families, their own, each other’s, and others still. This is the power of the rosary, asking the Blessed Virgin for conversion.”